You have found a particularly good bargain on eBay classifieds? Then the chances are very high that it is a fraudulent ad. We will show you a few criteria with which you can assess the situation.
First of all, they are (we refer to them here because you are interested) working MacBooks. These are often offered at much less than their current market value. Although they are still worth around 1000 Euros, they are offered for around 350 Euros in the ad. This is where instinct kicks in, of course, and this is intentional – but also stupid.
It used to be that nobody really bothered to rip you off. It was called a fire sale, and fine. Today you get a good and personal description, so the ad doesn’t really look different than a real one. In addition, there is a good story and it gives the impression that the seller or sellers are not so bright and you feel smart. But this is a trap. So you have to watch out for a few things.
By these criteria you can recognize fake classifieds
For example, if the user account has only been in existence for today or a few days, it is already not a good idea to do business with this user. But well, you could have also registered today, so write to the seller. The next good criterion is if the MacBook is sold for 700 Euros less than the value of the book, but the few Euros shipping costs are important – this way the communication reflects normality. But don’t let yourself be fooled.
- the price is too low
- the account has only existed for a short time
- despite selling below value, attention is paid to shipping costs
- foreign bank account is indicated for payment
- eBay deletes the display automatically
Finally you should keep your hands off the whole thing, if you have a foreign bank account for payment, i.e. an IBAN that does not start with the initials of your country. If this number also comes as a picture or screenshot, you should report the ad to eBay Classifieds right away.
Now the scammers go so far that the description sounds good, and there are a few other alibi sales besides the offered MacBook, so you shouldn’t think it’s all about scam – but even that shouldn’t distract you.
Security through delay – just wait and see
If you are still not sure, because the seller sounds really nice and the price doesn’t deviate that much from the market value, just wait a few days with the payment, which is possible over the weekend. Usually these ads are deleted by eBay already after one or two days, because the platform has noticed that something is wrong.
Which is something you should definitely not do: to let your bargain instinct win and pay for something immediately. That’s what these fake ads are for and in the worst case you pay for a good photo on eBay classifieds and never see your money again.
